Activists targeted by State, Maathai says

By Beauttah Omanga

Human rights activists are on the run following threats on their lives, Prof Wangari Maathai claimed on Friday.

She said many activists who interacted or gave information to UN Rapporteur Prof Philip Alston were being targeted by State agencies.

"Several human rights defenders who interacted with Alston’s team during his fact finding mission have been targeted, threatened and harassed in the course of their work and a number have been forced to go into hiding," Maathai said.

Addressing the Press at the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights offices in Nairobi, the Nobel Peace Laureate said several other human rights defenders in western Kenya have reported that they are trailed by plain-clothes police officers and receive threatening phones calls.

She said at least four have already left the country and ten are in hiding. In another incident, Maathai said a doctor who worked with torture survivors in Mt Elgon is under arrest in Kakamega.

She said he was arrested on March 14 and has been under police guard at a local hospital.

The doctor, Maathai said, has lodged a complaint with the KNCHR. She said three university students who worked closely with George Oulu, who was gunned down in Nairobi early this month, received threats on the same day he was killed and have since been in hiding.

She said Kenyans should resist a campaign to intimidate and silence human rights defenders, particularly those calling for accountability on extra-judicial executions.

"Kenyans should stand by the human rights defenders, such as those working at KNCHR and other organisations that violators of human rights want to cow to silence," she appealed.

She urged Kenyans to remain united and resist the rule of the gun and summary executions of young men and women in the name of fighting Mungiki.

She said Kenyans were still waiting for the arrest and prosecution of killers of Kamau Kangara and Oulu.

She urged President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to ensure the safety of human rights defenders.